Biden picks long-time confidant Blinken as Secretary of State

Wilmington, November 23

President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward on his campaign pledge to restore America as a leader on the global stage and lean on experts, tapping veteran diplomats for key posts even as President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede.

Thomas-Greenfield to be ambassador to UN

• Along with Antony Blinken, Biden will name Linda Thomas-Greenfield ambassador to the UN, bringing deep foreign-policy backgrounds to the nascent administration
• This is in a sharp contrast to Trump, who distrusted such experience and embraced an “America First” policy that strained longstanding US relationships

Biden will name Antony Blinken as Secretary of State and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the UN, bringing deep foreign-policy backgrounds to the nascent administration while providing a sharp contrast with Trump, who distrusted such experience and embraced an “America First” policy that strained longstanding US relationships.

Blinken could be named as early as Tuesday, according to sources close to Biden, while Axios first reported Thomas-Greenfield’s impending nomination. Blinken's appointment made another longtime Biden aide and foreign policy veteran, Jake Sullivan, the top candidate to be US national security adviser, a source said.

During the campaign, Biden severely criticised Trump's go-it-alone foreign policy and pledged to recommit to NATO and other global pacts, while promising to tap experts to fight the Covid crisis and other problems at home. He has promised to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organisation and potentially the Iran nuclear deal.

“America First has made America alone,” Biden said in a town-hall meeting in October. Blinken is a long-time Biden confidant who served as No. 2 at the State Department and as deputy national security adviser in President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Biden served as Vice-President.

Thomas-Greenfield, a Black woman who served as the assistant secretary of state for Africa under Obama, was intended to restore morale and help fulfil Biden’s pledge to choose a diverse cabinet, Axios reported.

Sullivan served as Biden's national security adviser during the Obama administration and also as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. — Reuters